Through the tragedy of the space shuttle Columbia, one clear picture that has emerged is the growing numbers of minorities going into space.According to Dr. Olasope Oyelaran, the director of international programs, “This tragedy hit at the core of money and emotion. Students here need to make sure they are prepared to enter this global society. Just having the two women on the shuttle shows diversity at that level. The different ethnicity of the men and women also brings about at least two or three different religions, which shows even more diversity.”Before the Columbia’s Jan. 16 launch, the shuttle’s astronauts sat down for interviews with the Orlando Sentinel. Here are some segments from those interviews:Kalpana ChawlaKalpana Chawla told her father that she wanted to study aerospace engineering and he scoffed. She should be a doctor or teacher, he told her.”That was a more respectable profession,” she recalled.Chawla’s father wouldn’t go with her when she went to interview at an Indian engineering school. Instead, her mother accompanied her to the college, where a male professor told her that engineering wasn’t “ladylike.”However, Chawla didn’t let sexism or even the lack of an aerospace program in her native India discourage her. She emigrated to the United States, earned a doctoral degree in aerospace engineering and, against all odds, became an astronaut.”For me, it’s really farfetched to have thought about it and made it,” Chawla said. “It’s almost like having won a lottery or something.”The 41-year-old engineer was returning from her second shuttle mission. Known as “KC”‘ around NASA, Chawla became the first person from India to fly in space in 1997. MICHAEL P. ANDERSONTelevision shows such as “Star Trek” and “Lost in Space” fueled Michael Anderson’s dreams of flying in space.As a young man, he meticulously plotted his career down to what planes he’d fly to improve his chances of being chosen for NASA’s astronaut corps. Eventually, persistence paid off and his dreams came true.”Fortunately someone else was looking over me,” said Anderson, a devout Christian married with two daughters. “For me, it’s the answer to a lot of my prayers.”The 43-year-old Air Force colonel was returning from his second space voyage. On his first shuttle flight in 1998, he became the first African-American to visit a space station during a trip to the Russian Mir outpost.”I hadn’t really thought about it,” Anderson said. “Any time you break ground on something new, there’s some benefit in that.”Anderson said he enjoyed being a role model to young blacks because he liked to do “anything I can do to inspire a young child, to tell someone about the importance of education.”Cecilia Davis, a sophomore, English major; “The diversity [on the shuttle] was showing progress, and I think we should honor him [Anderson] and [Israeli Ilan Ramon]. This shows that anybody, despite ethnicity, has compassion for human life and will succeed.”
ILAN ROMANOne evening in 1997, Israeli Air Force Col. Ilan Ramon was at his desk at Israeli Air Force headquarters when the phone rang. The voice on the other end asked whether he wanted to apply to be an astronaut. In Israel, the term astronaut often is used as an insult to describe those who are unstable or have their head in the clouds.”I thought it was a joke,” Ramon said.It wasn’t. The Air Force was looking for candidates to become Israel’s first astronaut. Ramon had all of the necessary qualities: Gifted pilot. Team player. A technical background. A background conducting experiments in the Air Force. He was chosen after a short selection process.Five years later, Ramon was returning from his first ship into space on Columbia. Married with three sons and one daughter, the 48-year-old former combat pilot’s flight has been front-page news throughout Israel. “When I first started this, I didn’t realize how big it was for Israelis and Jews,” Ramon said. “I am a Holocaust survivor’s son, an Israeli pilot and now, an astronaut. People can’t believe it. It’s very emotional for me also.”Dr. Oyelaran also said, “How is this university trying to prepare students for that global society? This tragedy emphasizes the need for students to be ready to work with others in society. We need to live in a world with no boundaries or frontiers. Students need to be prepared to work in a society with people from different cultures. There are two serious tragedies that have occurred in the last 24 months — September 11 and the Columbia space explosion. The September 11 tragedy involved people from over 115 different countries, and the shuttle explosion involved people from different backgrounds as well. If you don’t go abroad the rest of the world will come to you.”